While you were away....

Sorry Mike, but I am taking over your blog while you are away.

Heck, this gives me all kinds of opportunity!

1) Natalee Holloway--okay, I give. I must admit am fixated by the Foxnews coverage on Greta's show. I do love Greta. No, it is not a news story, but simply a mystery that all of America is hung up on. I hope it lasts....for Fox's sake, but not for her family's.

2) The new Energy Bill--how much money can we give to the oil companies under this cover, and for how long??

3) Carl Rove....haa haaa haaa....not much to add there.

4) John Roberts--yes, a true player in the 2000 election debacle. Nice try letting a few years pass, as if us dems will forget. Nothing like politics.

5) Our NY governor gives--yee ha! Knows he doesn't stand a chance.

6) Boy scouts are stood up by George Bush...hmm....what do you make of that?

Natalee Holloway

Mike,

What's your take on the missing girl in Aruba story? How do you like Fox's coverage of it? Would you let your 18-year-old daughter go to Aruba with 124 kids and 7 chaperones? What do you think of the Arubans protests of the mother's comments yesterday?

What do you think happened?

Oil and Murder

Barb,
I see where you are going with this. What if a future U.S. president decides to pull out, caving in to pressure from the spineless Republicans in Congress and we are left with, as you say in your clsoing paragraph, essential a terrorist state with all the money they can literally pump out of the ground. What would happen? What would we do?

Sadly, this is an all-too plausible a scenario. That is, Republicans going soft; calling for timetables for withdrawal, etc. (see Capital Advantage's letters to Rep. Jones http://www3.capwiz.com/y/bio/letterslist/?offset=0&length=10&issue=1&id=442).

And you don't need a crystal ball to know what will happen. Just turn to any reputable history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. There will be refugees, mass murder, etc. You would think...hmmmm what can we do differently in Iraq to avoid the mistakes of Vietnam? Well, we could ruthless round up, mercilessy interrogate and summarily execute every mother son of the insurgency until "Baathist" becomes a word that is no longer uttered in polite company; it should become the most vile and ugly thing you could say about a person, much like the "N-word" is today.

We are never going to win the hearts and minds of those in the insurgency, so those concerned with our "image" as that of Gitmo' and Abu Grahib should consider this fact. There was no Gitmo, no Abu Grahib when civilian airliners were hijacked and used as missiles. What was our image problem then? Well I'll grant you, lobbing cruise missiles at an aspirin factory was a stupid mistake. So was committing troops to Somalia, and stupider still was pulling them out after Mogadishu.

So we should concentrate on winning the hearts and minds of those tens of millions of Iraqis who voted in January for a real government. The de-Nazification of Germany following the war was barbaric by today's standards, but it was successful. The allies and German civilian groups rounded up those remaining in Nazi cells hiding throughout Europe. Brutal but necessary to demonstrate to the civilian population that it was safe to go about life, run for public office, take financial risks by opening or improving a business, etc.

Anyway, in your closing paragraph you wonder about a murderous regime financed by oil. Well we have had them. One is gone, Saddam Hussein's murderous reign is over. We still have Iran, though. They have been financing suicide bombings in Israel for decades.

Okay, Mike, let's let the people decide...

Mike, we can argue till the cows come home and then some about whether or not America should have invaded Iraq or not, and I will give you some points on that charge, however, the truth is the daily goings on there. Okay, it will take time to, according to you, teach them how democracy works.

Mike, at this point, we both know it is not the Iraqis who are fighting us at this point. It is the terrorists, Al Queda. Let me remind you, before the war, and after its Shock and Awe stage, what did I say? GW was opening up a ripe and ready country to control by terrorists.

And now if we cut and run, we are giving the terrorists a country with the world's third largest supply of oil.

But why now, are some Republicans started to jump sides, to say we ought to have a pull out plan? I believe I smell a duck cooking.

Okay, Mike, five years from now, and after we have begun to pull out (assuming the American public can stand it for that long)--if GW has inadvertentedly given the terrorists a foothold to control of a country that can support its murderous activities via its oil, how, oh how, does that help the war on terrorism?

So how would you rate the second four years of the Bush administration so far?

Me? Hmm...honestly, Mike, since the beginning of his second term, I keep looking for the genie to come out of the bottle. I keep waiting for the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq, the insurgency to be squelched, Bush's social security plan to start getting kudos and rave reviews from at least the majority in Congress...for SOMETHING that he promised and that our country elected him to do.

I must admit, at first the war in Iraq was finally starting to look like it was coming to some kind of slow, but glorious end with the elections in Iraq. I was actually beginning to taste my foot in my mouth about the whole thing. I was hoping it was coming to be--for you, for me, for all the people in Iraq, and for our brave soldiers there. But now, again, things seem to be spinning out of control. People are turning off the news, tired of it all, and wounded too.

And what's with this recruiting scandal? Why aren't our kids just lining up to go and serve this great country in this war? How come the recruiters have to threaten them if they don't? Give this much longer and we'll have a draft.

What's happening with social security? I think we've all lost track on that one.

You know, if Bush was really smart, he'd jump on the only train that's moving right now, and start lauding and funding alternative energy sources and begin making the move to free us from the oil strangle hold the Middle East has on us, and will have for decades to come if we don't change. Now is the time for someone, you'd think it would be our president, to do that. End this tyranny! Free us from the oil barons in Saudi Arabia and the terrorism of the Middle East. But no, there's Bush, sweetly holding hands and playing kissy-kissy with the Saudi Prince...his old oil buddy. The Sauds and the Bushes go way back....sigh. Some things never change. Although I must say, Bush looked so oddly in tune with the gay community for the first time in his life on that little walk!

Well, at least Laura has a new talent emerging--comedienne! (Speaking of which, we are going to see Seinfeld at the Stanley theatre in Utica tomorrow night, for a small fortune, of course!)

Anyway, come, rebutt my trash, slay me, gallant knight of the Republican round table!